THE Easter Road defender is convinced his side are back in the hunt for a top-six finish after collecting points against Motherwell and Inverness.

MICHAEL Nelson believes the way for Hibs to catch St Johnstone in the race for the top six is to completely ignore them.

The defender is convinced his side have halted the slide and are back in the hunt for a top-half finish after bagging points against Motherwell and Inverness.

Terry Butcher’s men have won only one of their last 10 games but are still just four points behind the Saints in sixth with four games to the split – and the pair set to square up in just over a week.

The Perth side also have a game in hand and Nelson admits the Easter Road side will be watching and waiting for a slip-up.

However, the Admiral insists the Leith men would be better off blanking St Johnstone and making sure they can keep up the bargain at their end.

Nelson said: “We are only four points off the top six and just have to worry about ourselves because we can’t do anything to influence St Johnstone until we play them.

“There are big games coming up and the next one is Partick so the aim now is to get minds set for Saturday. We’re getting to the stage where the boys will probably come off the pitch and quickly ask how St Johnstone got on.

“But we can’t control what they do, we need to just focus on ourselves. We had a chat after the game on Wednesday and the gaffer told us it’s all about Partick Thistle now.”

Wednesday’s goalless draw in Inverness was hardly a thriller but it was just what the leaky Hibs defence needed after shifting 15 goals in five games.

The stalemate stopped the rot and eased some of the pain after Motherwell’s stoppage-time leveller last weekend.

Nelson said: “We were delighted with a clean sheet and disappointed we weren’t more of a threat attacking-wise compared with what we were on Saturday.

“But we got the defensive side right. It’s been a long time since we had a clean sheet so we can take the positives from that.

“We’ve been disappointed with the goals that have been conceded of late so it’s nice to stop the bleeding. It would have been nice to have got a win and put a bit of shine on Saturday’s point.”

The Well draw hurt at the time but Nelson reckons in the cold light of day it could be a turning point for Hibs.

At 2-0 down it looked as if Butcher’s side were on for a bleaching but they hauled it round and led 3-2 until the late stages.

The twist in the tale stung but Nelson insists the performance proved there is plenty of fight in the Easter Road squad.

He said: “Saturday was a bit of a kick in the teeth but when you look at the way we responded from going 2-0 down to actually going a goal up was brilliant.

“We showed a lot of character on Saturday. There are a lot of young boys in our team and we could have folded after going two goals down against a team of Motherwell’s quality. Or we could have gone for damage limitation so it didn’t get to three or four.

“But we took the bull by the horns and against Inverness we looked solid as a defensive unit.

“The way they set up was to play mostly on the counter which wasn’t ideal for flowing football but it’s the same for both teams and it wasn’t a fantastic match with a lot of possession.”

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